If New Mexico is leaning red, it’s not because the state is any closer to declaring a presidential winner. It’s because some New Mexicans are embarrassed about how long it’s taking to get the votes counted. Again.
“It’s embarrassing to know this state has not been able to count all it’s votes,” said Tom Torres of Edgewood. “It’s not like this is a surprise. We saw it last election.”
In the 2000 election, it took about a month for the state to determine that Al Gore had defeated President George W. Bush by 366 votes.
Election officials said they are working to count all ballots by Friday in the race between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry. In Bernalillo County, the actual counting of more than 13,000 provisional and in-lieu-of ballots might not start until Tuesday, election officials said.